No, really, I NEEDED it.

Clearly, I’m in a bit of an obsessive phase with my sewing right now. I’m constantly doing it, thinking about it, reading about it, and dreaming up new projects before I finish any of the old ones. I’m hoping I can mellow it out into just a steady habit, instead of burning out and not touching my sewing machine for months on end (it has happened before). In the meantime, I guess I’ll just try to be as productive as I can!

Take last night, for instance. When I should have been in bed, I was having a little too much fun with an empty oatmeal can, some glue, and leftover fabric.

Inspired by crazy mom quilts‘ tutorial involving an empty tuna can, I decided I wanted to make a pincushion. I was annoyed at my magnetic one, which didn’t keep a hold on the pins the way I would have hoped. I didn’t make it exactly as the tutorial suggests, but I mostly just remembered the rough idea and improvised.

I used a rubber band to guide where I wanted to cut the box, so it was about 2″ deep. I cut some fabric about 5″ wide and 13.5″ long, a bit more than the circumference of the box. Sewed it lengthwise with right sides together, turned it right side out and pressed it so it was around 2.5″ wide and two layers of fabric (so the Quaker logo wouldn’t show through. I sewed the ends together, put a little glue on the box to help hold things in place, and slipped my little fabric ring over the outside. I then took a 9″ square of fabric for the actual cushion part, but a big handful of polyfil in the middle, and pulled the corners around to the bottom. I sewed a button in the middle, which had the added benefit of securing the corners on the bottom. A little more glue, stuffed it into the box, and voila!

Oh. Ahem. That second thing next to the pincushion… well… obviously I needed somewhere to put my safety pins, too. Right? That’s normal…

Cut out the other end of the box, took another scrap of the red fabric, sewed a button in the middle to secure it to the bottom of the cut-out box. [With the pins in the box, of course, you can’t see the button. But it’s cute, trust me.] Glued down the inside corners, the sides, and folded it over the top of the cut box. Then same deal with the outside sleeve to cover it.

Obsessive, much? Yeah, probably. Do I wish I had gone to bed earlier last night? Definitely. But they’re super cute, and now I have a better containment solution for my pins.